Subject: Jean Shepherd
If you don't mind, I'd like to add another piece to my original post. I've had the strangest reaction to finding this board. I'll be at home, or in my car, or at work and all of a sudden I'll remember another Shepherd story and I'll start laughing. Can't stop. Is there some kind of group help available for Shepherd-itis?
Today, I remembered two stories: the one where he build some kind of electrical contraption in his basement and blacked out all of Indiana and the one where the 'gang' builds a carbide cannon out of a galvanized garbage can.
What I wouldn't give to hear either of these again!
Don
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 20:00:04 -0500
From: Steven J. Hoffman <steve90@erols.com>
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Excelsior, you fathead!
I was overjoyed to learn of your Shep site. Man oh man how wonderful were the times years listening to him on WOR (I grew up in NY). I've even got my "In God We Trust" book autographed by him. I used to have a black+white photo poster of him in my room; don't know what became of it. Also a Cinzano ashtray with a paper signed by him certifying that it hadn't been stolen from a cafe! I'll try to think of some anecdotes or experiences to share. I do have a few shows on tape (at least one from his live at the Limelight Saturday night shows). The only thing about Shep that has always driven me crazy is how he himself pooh-poohs the significance of his radio work. I've heard him say in interviews that what he really valued were his writings and his plays, that radio was somehow too ethereal. He's wrong. There's millions of books and thousands of plays, but few people have ever, ever utilized radio as effectively as Shep. How I loved that show!
--
Steve Hoffman
steve90@erols.com
From: <Jandcyagr@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1997 02:02:04 -0500 (EST)
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss
I found a listing for OHHoB in a catalog at Blockbuster but no ordering information. The cat. # WD1873 DG was given. I sure want to purchase this movie. I think the film crew rode with my family jon one of our "50's" vacations. It was about six or seven years ago when I saw it on Disney and I'm in need of some good laughs.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
John
From: FRANK RECK <KZHP08A@prodigy.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997 21:41:33, -0500
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Banana Oil
Hi Jim,
The incident recently with the armored truck full of cash that crashed in Florida reminded me of a story that Shep told in the early '70s. It was about a truck full of banana oil that crashed near his house and began to leak. Everyone went nuts yelling "banana oil, banana oil" and grabbed cans, barrels, pans and anything else they could scoop banana oil up in. Everyone in the neighborhood had a seemingly endless supply of banana oil. Only after the frenzy died down did they all realize that there isn't much use for banana oil. Just like Shep!
Frank Reck
From: Hillary Kelley <HKelley914@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 17:54:37 -0500 (EST)
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Algebra story by Jean Shepherd
In the '70's I read a story by Jean Shepherd which detailed his experiences in algebra class. I have not seen it in any of his anthologies and would like to know if anyone knows where I can find a copy. Thank you.
Hillary Kelley
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 1997 12:10:59 -0600
From: Mark Surks <marks@injersey.com>
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Shep
Gosh, like so many people who have posted here, I am awed by the fact that I have had such a hugely shared experience. All these years it never occured to me that other baby boomers (I'm 44) stayed up way to late, in the dark, (lights out in my house preceeded showtime) sucking on Regal Crown Sour Candies (never was the power of advertising so evident) listinging to the great one. In fact, I always beleived I was the only kid listening to what was intended for adults.
What a thrill to find this website. My main interest was to find out if somehow those old WOR shows existed somewhere on tape. I see from the posts that some people have some of their own. Now I was sent some E-mail that indicated that the old WOR show was on WBAI 99.5 on Tuesday at 5:30 AM. I'm going to check into this. However, I would love it if some fan would make this stuff available.
Mark Surks
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 11:31:41 -0500
From: Steven Craig Sickles <sickles@exit109.com>
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Just a note ...
Having been a long-time Netizen, I always lamented the lack of a Jean Shepherd Web site. Now, we have several, and I just wanted to thank you for having one of the best, and for keeping his work alive for us.
I hope to catch him this May in Princeton, but in the meantime you've found another loyal reader. Long live Shep!
Steven Sickles
Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 00:18:24 -0800
From: Mark Landis <pscmll@vaxc.hofstra.edu>
Subject: Shep memories
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
I have a multitude of happy memories of listening to Shep, especially in the mid- to late-1950s, though later too. With my parents blissfully oblivious to the fact that rather than sleeping I was listening to a transistor radio under my pillow, I would revel in the wonderful world Shep was creating, probably not a world intended for ten or eleven year old kids. This was a particularly delicious pleasure in the summers I spent in Far Rockaway, NY where my parents would rent a bungalow every summer. Shep was even better when I didn't have to worry about being tired in school the next day.
One very clear memory of those Sunday night shows was his reading from Fu Manchu novels. I can still remember chills running up my spine as he hissed out the Fu Manchu part and described various threats to the life of Dennis Nayland-Smith and his associate (Dr. Somebody,whose name I can't now recall). Lots of snakes and poisons, as I remember it. What a great reader Shep was! And have I hallucinated this, or did he from time to time read Bobbsey Twins stories to us?
My other very clear memory of Shep involves a parade sometime in the early 1960s for one (or perhaps a crew) of the American astronauts. A ticker tape parade was held in New York to honor them, and Shep was up in the WOR helicopter covering it. Suddenly, a plane crash occurred (I believe it was at Idlewild Airport, later re-named Kennedy), and so for the next few hours, Shep covered that crash for WOR. It's even possible that somewhere, buried in my mass of possessions, I have a reel-to-reel tape of that broadcast. Perhaps I'll try to dig that tape out and report on anything further of interest regarding it.
Finally, Jim, thanks for putting this website together. It's truly a pleasure to wander around it and recall so many happy times.
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 08:39:49 -0800
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
From: Brad Cantos <bcantos@mindspring.com>
Subject: Shep
Jim,
I learned of your web site only recently, and had that old nostalgia trip as I read every item. You've done a great job! The info on the recorded materials available is all new for me, as is the "I, Libertine" story.
I came pretty late to Shepdom, listening to his stories for a few years on WOR in NYC before leaving the city to go to school.
There are a couple of stories that I didn't see mentioned in the email that has been posted, so here they are. The very first story I ever heard Shep recount is the one that hooked me. It was one of his school-days stories when he discovered the culinary delights of LaPage's library paste. After all these years the details of the story are fuzzy, but I have this wonderful mental image of a kid hiding a jar of paste in his desk, and every time the teacher turned away, he would dip in his finger and enjoy a dollop.
I also recall a period of a few weeks when Shep lobbied to create the Kingdom of New Amsterdam, and install himself as the monarch. I'm not entirely certain, but wasn't that the reason for the Press Conference at the Overseas Press Club? My friend Jim even went so far as to procure a sheet of school letterhead so that we could attend the press conference.
The last event I remember involved coordinating the entire listening audience to jump up and down at a designated time. The goal was to record the jump-in on seismometers throughout the country, even the world.
Thanks again for your hard work. Excelsior!
Brad Cantos
Date: Sat, 08 Mar 1997 21:33:57 -0500
From: YELLEN FAMILY <remley@bellatlantic.net>
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Jean Shepherd
Does anyone have any information about Leigh Brown? I believe that she is from my hometown, Clifton, New Jersey. In the 70s Shep made an appearance at Clifton High School at which he introduced Leigh in the audience. In several of his shows Shep has made mention of the Clifton High School Marching Band and their then director Saul Kaye. (Was Leigh a bandmember?) He also mentioned the Bonds Ice Cream store, an infamous hangout of Clifton highschoolers and undoubtably Leigh too.
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 00:40:17 -0500 (EST)
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
From: Joel Baumwoll <joelb@thorn.net>
Subject: shep
discovered your page on a midnight search of OTR. Used to listen to Shep on his all night show on WOR from the Cartaret NJ transmitter. Wasn't he followed by Long John Nebel? Once sent him a newspaper story from a 1942 New York Post Sports page which he read on air--so I became one of his spies. I remember his sponsors--"Nedicks "Nedicks schmeedicks double beedicks pitkins all agree" and Prexy's (Prexy's schmecksies...) Excelsior got a free order of fries but I never had the courage to do it. Does anyone remember his story "when I was this kid see..." and he caught an aligator gar alone at night on an Indiana lake in a row boat? Are any tapes of his marathon WOR shows available?
I think much of my irreverant and cynical view of the world as an adult came from listening to Shep in my late teens and early 20's. I also memorized Robert Service's poems from forty years ago!
Thanks for your keeping the flame alive. I'm going to try to get to Princeton on May 27th.
Joel Baumwoll
New york City
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 18:57:30 -0800
From: Gary WA3YVB <gonzo@p3.net>
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Jean Shepherd
Thank you for posting the information about the 1997 Jean Shepherd show at Princeton.
I got hooked on New Year's Eve of 1970. I was tuning around the mediumwave band and stopped on a station that was playing a unique piece of music. It was captivating. Listening to the collection of stories, wire service copy that would not make the evening news, and his adlibs during spots kept me listening. And when whatever he was talking about was similar to something that happened in your life- WHAM!
Each of us has favorite Shepherd stories. Mine involve radio. His trip to Chicago's radio row and returning with a discount bleeder resistor for his ham radio power supply brings back memories. The conclusion of the story was that the bleeder resistor opened, and failed to discharge the filter capacitors. Shep somehow placed his hand across the output and BOOM!
The time between 9:15 PM to 11 PM weeknights was my safe haven to forget what happened in my day and listen about the Old Man, his mother with the aluminum rheostats in her hair, Randy, Company K, etc. And he would announce personal appearances. He did a live show at Drexel University for their college radio station. As soon as the show was over, I took the poster from the ticket booth. I still have it. I first met JS at a booksigning in December 1972 at John Wanamaker's Department Store in Philadelphia for The Ferrari In The Bedroom.
The shows he has done at Princeton are legendary. How many fans know that at one time Alexander Hall had no public bathrooms. Or the meaning of the painting on the stage at Richardson Auditorium. Or the story of the design and construction of Alexander Hall? Whether Shepherd's stories are true or not, they always bring me to laughter.
The highlight was after a live show, I was invited backstage and sat intentively for almost two hours listening to Shep's aftershow show.
Shep also wrote a piece for 73 Magazine, entitled Some Guys Make It...I believe it originally appeared in either the Dec.62 or Dec. 63 issue, related to Ham radio. In a Ham Radio class, when it was my turn to send morse code to the group, I sent "The Bear missed the train, and now he's walking". Only one person in the class understood the meaning of the message.
"Shepherd fan"? he asked. Yes. I said.
In the 70's, I remember Shep also did the voice-over for a Spitfire automobile spot. Paraphrasing "Like your first girl, you never forget your first Spitfire." was the copy.
This is a partial list of Jean Shepherd stories that appeared in Playboy that I have in my personal collection. If you can find them, check out the illustrations that go along with the stories. Any additions would be appreciated.
Issue Story Title Starting Page: Jul 1965 Ludlow Kissel and the Dago Bomb Page 72 Nov 1966 Daphne Bigelow And The Tin-foil Noose Page 107 Dec 1967 Return of the Smiling Wimpy Doll Page 180 Dec 1968 Banjo Butt Meets Julia Child Page 152 Jun 1969 Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories Page 165 Jan 1970 Zinsmeister and the Eighter from Decatur Page 178 Dec 1970 The Star Crossed Romance Of Josephine Cosnowski Page 224 May 1971 The Unforgettable Exhibition Game Page 108 Aug 1971 The Mole People Battle The Forces Of Darkness Page 76 May 1973 Lost At C Page 143 Aug 1981 A Fistful of Fig Newtons Page 150The America of George Ade was edited and introduced by Jean Shepherd. Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons. New York 1960
I was able to obtain additional books written by Ade from Zubal booksellers. They are available on the internet.
In closing, this is the moral of a fable from The America of George Ade:
"There are at least two Kinds of Education."
Ain't that the truth.
Gary WA3YVB
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